Technical Field
Embodiments described herein are related to the field of systems-on-a-chip (SoC) and, more particularly, to a data transceiver block in an SoC.
Description of the Related Art
A variety of electronic devices are now in daily use with consumers. Particularly, mobile devices have become ubiquitous. Mobile devices may include cell phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), smart phones that combine phone functionality and other computing functionality such as various PDA functionality and/or general application support, tablets, laptops, net tops, smart watches, wearable electronics, etc. Generally, a mobile device may be any electronic device that is designed to be carried by a user or worn by a user. The mobile device is typically battery powered so that it may operate away from a constant electrical source such as an electrical outlet.
Many mobile devices may operate in a “standby” mode much of the time. In the standby mode, the device may appear to be “off,” in as much as the device is not actively displaying content for the user and/or not actively performing functionality for the user. In the standby mode, much of the device may indeed by powered off. In the background, however, the device may be polling voice and data networks, checking for alarms, reacting to movement, etc.
Because mobile devices are often operating from a limited power supply (e.g. a battery), energy conservation is a key design consideration for the devices. A mobile device may include a system on a chip (SoC) as an aid in energy conservation, since much of the functionality needed in the device can be included in the SoC. In “standby” or other low power modes, it is desirable to power down the SoC to eliminate leakage current losses, which are a significant factor in energy consumption in modern integrated circuit technologies. On the other hand, the SoC may be needed for some of the standby functionality mentioned above.
Some mobile devices may include another processor that may need to communicate with the SoC. For example, mobile phones may include both an SoC and a baseband processor, in which the SoC may handle user interface tasks as well as running many applications while the baseband processor may handle tasks associated with wireless networks such as cellular and Wi-Fi®. In such an arrangement, the SoC may enter a reduced power state if a level of activity is low. The baseband processor may remain active to communicate with networks, for example, to receive an incoming call. In such a case, the baseband may need to interrupt the SoC to get the SoC into a mode in which the baseband processor can communicate with the SoC in order to answer the incoming call.